Handbook Of Violin Playing - Online tutorial

A Tutorial For Classical Style Violin, full online instruction.

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	32	SECOND PART.
	The fingers must so descend upon the strings that the first joint stands perpendicularly upon them. The pressure of the fingers upon the strings must always be in excess of the pressure of the bow. According to one's playing, whether forcible or light, so the pressure of the finger is increased or decreased. In slow movements and long notes only that finger is pressed down which has to play the note. The others are lifted, yet so that each one is suspended exactly over its proper place. In as­cending scale passages in quick time, the fingers are allowed to remain; in descending passages, one finger is lifted at a time. The observance of this rule greatly facilitates true intonation in descending scale passages, as, each finger being already in its place upon the note to be played, these places have not again to be separately found. There are, however, exceptions which will come under notice later. After the setting back of the first finger and the putting forward of the second finger have been successfully practised, the "free"* setting of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers follows.
	All the notes in regular order from the open G on the G string to B on the E string must now be played.
	To attain certainty of fingering in the lower position, one of these two methods must next be adopted. Either intervals — thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, and octaves from each note on each string, in C major, must now be practised, or all the major and minor scales may next be
	* i. e. without the aid of the intervening fingers. Tr.